Moments
by KateRayearth
Summary: A collection of unrelated pokeshipping drabbles/ficlets that are too short to be posted alone.
1. Surprise

_(Written in reply to a prompt—I was asked how Ash could be spontaneously sweet to Misty if they were dating.)_

—-

**Surprise**

Sometimes Misty wishes Ash could be a little more romantic. Not always, of course—that wouldn't be him, and she wouldn't want to change him that much. Just a little, sometimes.

From the outside you could barely tell that they are a couple. Sure, they've kissed, but most of the time it was her taking the initiative. He always seems to enjoy it enough; but despite that, whenever they have some alone time he'll mostly sit awkwardly and wait for her to make a move first. They were sitting on a bench outside, once, and only after a while she started to realize he was moving his hand towards hers one millimeter at a time. She sighed a little and took his hand herself. He jumped and almost pulled back as if caught red-handed.

Eventually she decides to bring it up. "You know", she sighs, shaking her head—they've been looking at each other for a couple minutes, neither saying anything—"you could at least _try_".

"Try what?" he looks confused. She crosses her arms.

"To act like I'm your girlfriend."

His cheeks flush a bit red. They've been together for nearly a month now, but putting it into words still embarasses him. "Girl…friend, right", he says, trying out how it sounds, then frowns: "Don't I already do that? I mean, we… kiss, and all…"

"I kiss _you_", she points out. "If I don't, you never do anything."

"Oh". She can see the gears spinning furiously inside his brain. "Do you… want me to kiss you?"

"I shouldn't have to ask."

He bites his lip, unsure. Misty shakes her head again. "I can't even tell if you actually like me sometimes."

"Of course I do."

"I mean like-_like_". She's still not all that sure he actually knows the difference. "You don't do much to show it, you know. Sometimes a girl likes to feel a little more appreciated. You can kiss me without me having to do it first, if you want—if you actually want to. Or, I don't know, tell me when you think I look pretty."

"But you always look pretty."

He says it so naturally that for a moment she's completely taken aback and left wondering if she actually heard it. When she realizes she did, it's her turn to blush.

Ash looks at her. "Did, huh, did I say something wrong?"

She lets go a little embarassed laughter, hiding her face with her hand for a second. "You didn't", she assures him then. "Alright, alright. I'll give you this one."

He still looks puzzled. "So you aren't mad at me?"

"I was". She leans against his side with a little sigh. He tenses up at first, but after a moment she can feel his body relax and accommodate to hers. "I'm not anymore."

—-

He does it a few other times, too.

One evening he surprises her with a flower. It's a beautiful deep blue, like water, with soft jagged petals. It looks freshly picked. He only brought her flowers once before, the first time they went on a date; that time, it was a store-bought bouquet, wrapped in plastic, and he managed to instantly ruin everyting by telling her "Brock said I should bring you some flowers".

This time, he handles her the flower with a shrug. "I saw it while I was coming here", he says, "It reminded me of you".

He says it with the same spontaneity, not even seeming to realize the sweetness of his gesture. Misty holds the flower in her hands for a few moments, looking at it, then wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him. When she lets go, he's surprised and red in the face.

"Thank you", she smiles, "It's beautiful".

Ash still looks not quite sure of what he did to obtain that reaction, but he can tell it made her happy, and he smiles back. "Okay", he says, shrugging his shoulders again. He takes her hand. "Are we going?"

She nods. She leaves the flower on the table, after looking at it one more time, then follows him outside. Sometimes she wishes he could be a little more romantic, but sometimes everything is perfect just the way it is.


	2. Unfair Battle

**Unfair Battle**

She has no idea _how_, but somehow every time they sleep together he ends up taking up the whole bed. He tosses and turns and kicks, and the blankets turn into a tangled mess at their feet, and then of course Pikachu has to snuggle in too, and she's lucky if she's left with enough space to move without tumbling to the floor.

She fell asleep with her head on his shoulder yesterday evening. But now it's morning, and he's lying sprawled across the bed, snoring soundly, arms and legs spread in more directions that she'd think possible; and somehow he managed to push her in a corner so tiny that she had to curl into a ball to fit. She sighs and props herself on her arm (his fingers are tangled in her hair), and looks at him for a couple moments. Then yanks the pillow away from under his head, and throws it on his face.

He mumbles something, eyes still closed. She hits him with the pillow again, and finally he rolls to his side and cracks an eye open.

"Oww, what was that for…?"

She sits up and brings her hands to her hips. "You nearly pushed me off the bed," she informs him. He covers his face with an arm.

"Sorry," he groans. "Can I have the pillow back now?"

She hides it behind her back. "Not until you move away from my side."

He doesn't answer. She waits, frowning, and after no longer than a few seconds she hears snoring again. She smacks the pillow on his face one more time.

He reacts with an annoyed grunt. "Can you stop that?" he tries to protest, but he's still talking from under his arm so it comes out muffled and inarticulate. She breathes out.

"Would you mind listening to me? Just for a minute? I don't think I'm asking for too much, you know, considering you made me spend the whole night in a corner again, and sorry if I'm disturbing your precious—"

He moves his arm from his eyes to look at her; and all of a sudden he grabs her by the waist and tugs her down. She falls on him with a yelp and he kisses her, smothering her angry words with his mouth, and she can feel his lips curl in a smirk as he does. Feeling her face burn, she tries to push him away, but he traps her under his arm and kisses her again.

"I'm sorry," he says, his voice still sleepy. He moves to make space for her, then pulls her closer again. "Sorry," he repeats, laying another small dozy kiss on her shoulder; and she'd very much like to stay angry at him, but he buries his stupid gloating face in her hair and breathes slowly against her skin, and her rage falters at the edges, starting to melt away like snow in the sun.

"That's unfair," she lets him know. He replies with a _mmh_, half asleep again, and she lets out a tiny sigh before resting her head against his chest. Above them the morning sun draws pale rectangles on the wall. She'll let him win for this once, she decides, closing her eyes. She'll be angry at him another time.


	3. My Hero

_(The prompt was to write something where a guy is insistently hitting on Misty and Ash gets pissed, while they're already in a relationship.)_

—-

**My Hero**

"Has anyone ever told you you're beautiful?"

She gives an embarassed laugh. The guy is tall, with muddy green eyes under a mop of brown curls; his lips curve at the corners in a grin. She noticed his stare a couple times.

"Someone did, yeah."

He laughs too, softly. "Of course. Hard not to notice," he says. He leans closer, casually laying a hand on the back of the bench. She sees pale brown freckles running down his arm. "So, what's your name?"

She raises her eyebrows. "Why do you want to know?"

"Just trying to get to know you" he says with a shrug. He sits, crossing his legs. "It's a shame such a pretty girl is sitting here all alone."

His eyes shine quietly and she can feel her cheeks flush a bit red. "I'm not alone," she replies though; he frowns a little and looks around.

"I don't see anyone."

"He's gone to get something to drink."

"Of course." But it doesn't sound like he believes it. He stretches his arms along the bench; he's not touching her, but she's aware of his arm behind her shoulders, his fingers nearly brushing her skin. "Maybe I can keep you company until your friend comes back, then. Are you gonna tell me your name?"

She tilts her head and bites her lip for a moment. "Why don't you tell me yours first?"

He smirks. "Fair enough," he says. "I'm Shane. Your turn now."

"Misty," she sighs. He lets it sink in his mind.

"Almost as beautiful as you are," he comments then. "See, that wasn't hard now, was it?"

His fingers curl around her shoulder as he talks. She stiffens, startled, and he laughs again.

"Come on. I don't bite."

_But maybe I do_, she thinks, and she grabs his hand to move it away. He takes the chance to close his fingers around hers, holding her hand in his for a moment; she gives him a stare, then yanks it away from his grip.

"Could you stop?"

He laughs again, but there's nothing soft about it this time, nothing kind. "Why, because otherwise your friend will come here and kick my ass?"

"Because I asked you to," she snaps. "And besides, if I wanted to kick your ass, I'd do it myself. Don't worry."

"What's going on?"

She turns to see Ash standing next to the bench, eyebrows in a frown, a steaming cup of cappuccino in each hand. She shakes her head with a sigh: "Nothing. He was just leaving."

Shane looks at Ash, then back at her. "Who's this? Your little brother?"

"I'm her _boyfriend_," he points out, emphasizing the word well. "And you are?"

Shane gives a throaty laugh: "Boyfriend? Come on, you deserve better."

"Hey!"

Ash's hands tighten around the cups. Shane stares him in the eyes and lays his arm around her shoulders again; and suddenly everything happens so fast that she doesn't even have the time to react: Ash sets the cups down on the bench—one tips over the edge, spilling a flood of cappuccino on her shoe—and a second later he's yanking Shane away from her. "Leave her alone!" he growls, fists clenched; he tugs him to his feet, but Shane's bigger, and moments later he has him grasped by the collar of his shirt.

By the time she reaches them, Ash has taken a punch to the face and thrown a couple in return. She grabs Shane's arm and jerks him away, squeezing between the two of them: "Enough! Both of you!"

They keep trying to throw themselves at each other. She shoves Shane away, holding Ash by his shirt. "Get lost! And you—" she turns to look at Ash "sit down."

Shane stares fuming at both, a trail of blood dripping down his chin from a split lip; but their scuffle drew the attention of quite a few passerbys, so he takes the hint and does leave, after mumbling some insult. She breathes out and pushes Ash towards the bench, forcing him to sit. Her heart hammers a little in her throat.

He's got a black eye, swelling a bruised purple. She looks at it for a couple moments and shakes her head.

"What on earth were you doing?"

"He was bothering you," he grumbles. She sighs.

"I could have handled it myself," she tells him. He puffs his cheeks and looks away. She closes her eyes for a moment: "Alright, wait there. Don't move a muscle."

She walks to the café to ask for some ice. He's still there when she comes back, thankfully; and she sits next to the surviving cappuccino cup and holds the ice pack against his bruise.

"You don't need to get hurt to protect me," she says. Then leans closer and lays a small kiss on his forehead. "But thank you anyway."

"I just didn't want that guy to hurt you."

"Yeah. My hero," she teases him. "It's alright. I'm fine."

"I know," he says. But he's still pouting a bit, so she sighs one more time and kisses him again.

"You also don't need to be jealous. You know."

"I wasn't—" he begins to say, then stops. "Alright, maybe a bit."

She shakes her head. She ruffles his hair gently, then sits quietly by his side, holding the ice. The small curious crowd is scattering again. She watches at the spilled cup rolls away in a gust of wind and catches herself smiling: she loves him for a lot of things, and this is definitely one.


	4. Friends with an idiot

_(I posted something on tumblr yesterday wondering if when Ash ended up on the news while jumping from the Prism Tower in Kalos the story made it to Kanto as well, and if Misty saw it. I ended up writing this.)_

—

**Friends with an idiot**

_"A new Grand Festival is about to start in Hoenn…"_

The TV blabbers quietly in the background as she mops up the floor in the hallway. It's a trouble with running a water gym—wet footprints always leave trails everywhere. Now and then she catches bits of sentences, splinters of what's happening all around the world.

_"Let's now have a look at the Kalos region, where something nearly unbelievable kept Lumiose City holding its breath today."_

Kalos—that's where Ash is. Of course, she thinks, shaking her head a bit: it's only fitting that as soon as he gets somewhere something crazy should happen. She dips the mop in the bucket again, paying a little more attention to the speaker's words.

_"When a rampaging Garchomp went out of control and flew to the Prism Tower, a brave young trainer from Kanto took it upon himself to try and stop it, climbing to the top of the tower with his Pokémon."_

She stops. Hands tightening around the handle of the mop, she turns to look at the TV, not quite knowing why, not yet, not fully.

The Prism Tower stands out dark against a sunset, a ball of smoke spewing from a side.

_"The attempt, while managing to free Garchomp from a device that appeared to be controlling it, resulted in the trainer's Pikachu getting knocked off the tower…"_

Her stomach crumples in a ball. The shots are shaky now, falling out of focus. She sees a tangle of black hair under a red hat.

_"…and the trainer, without a moment of hesitation, jumped from the tower himself to catch it."_

Her breath hitches stuck in her chest as she watches him fall, and she doesn't need to know—she does already. Her fingers are clasped so tight that they've gone numb, her knuckles white.

Please, she thinks. Please, please, please.

There's a flash, a ball of fire catching them moments before they hit the ground. She blinks. The speaker starts talking again.

_"Fortunately, the adventure had a happy end, as both the trainer and his Pikachu were rescued just in time by a Mega Blaziken that disappeared shortly after. Its provenience is still unclear."_

She lets out a breath so relieved and sudden that it sounds almost like a sob. On the screen, a slightly battered-looking Ash stands with Pikachu on his shoulder and smiles at him and then at the camera. Her knees feel a little wobbly. She loosens her grip on the handle and brings a hand to her face, shaking her head.

"You're— dear Arceus…"

The newscast goes on, talking about unusual weather in Sinnoh. She takes a moment to allow her heart to slow, her fingers shaking just a tiny bit.

She hears footsteps. Daisy pokes her head in the hallway, her hair wrapped in a blue towel. "Hey, Misty, could you— hey, are you okay? You're like, really pale."

She needs to think about it for a second. "Yeah, I'm fine." she assures her then. She looks back at the TV screen, now showing images of a storm; she shakes her head again. Daisy stares at her, her eyebrows in a frown.

"I'm fine." she repeats. It comes out a little choked. "I'm just… friends with an idiot."


End file.
